


“Anadé Boranys, Fifth Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”

by Polgarawolf



Series: Star Wars: You Became to Me [26]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Child abuse/neglect, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Handmaidens, Loss, Murder, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Sacrificial ethics, Tragedy, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-26
Updated: 2007-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-13 08:57:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polgarawolf/pseuds/Polgarawolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is fifteen random but chronological moments from the life of Anadé Boranys, who is, quite literally, the fifth handmaiden in the third training class of potential handmaidens chosen from among a large pool of applicants for the job for the newly elected Nabooian Queen Padmé Amidala. There is an actual story here – one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together – but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )</p>
            </blockquote>





	“Anadé Boranys, Fifth Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Anadé Boranys’ life, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU **Star Wars** series **_You Became to Me_**. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask!
> 
>  **Author’s Notes: 1.)** Again, for anyone interested, this not-quite-a-story is compatible with my SW AU series **_You Became to Me_** , including my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Anadé Boranys’ eyes. **2.)** Although this is technically modeled on a prompt set that I borrowed from somewhere or another on the LJ (I really don’t recall from where anymore, precisely, though if someone would like to set the record straight, I’ll add the info for the community in question here in my notes), it’s not really meant to function as a response to whatever the challenge actually is that’s associated with said LJ prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Anadé. **3.)** Readers might want to consider the fact that Anadé, like a lot of native Nabooians, is fairly strong in the Force, but that she hasn’t received any training whatsoever to speak of and so has no real conscious control over that sensitivity to the Force. **4.)** Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for original characters like Anadé should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity’s sake, though, Anadé is modeled on a teenaged Amanda Bynes, Lahura Boranys should be pictures as a young (a little over twelve and a half, at the time of her death, approximately five years prior to the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo) Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Camryn Boranys as Lee Ingleby, and Ellindra Ghende Boranys as a young (approximately twenty-three, at the time of her death) Megan Dodds. Please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! **5.)** Handmaidens often tend to pair off, as is the case here, with Anadé Boranys and Ellessé Veganis, a fellow handmaiden from the same training class (hence, the relationship label for original female characters and the underage warning). **6.)** Speaking of pairings, I've labeled this to indicate both Padmé Amidala's and Sabé's love for Obi-Wan, because, even though it may not be specifically mentioned in this character study piece, handmaid(en)s know so much about their sworn Lady that readers can be certain that Anadé, like all of Amidala's other handmaid(en)s who knew him (or knew of him), would have surely known about both their Lady's and Sabé's love and high regard for Obi-Wan, just as they would have known about how much Amidala and Sabé love one another!
> 
>  **Story Notes:** **1.)** Since this is part of a larger on-going AU series that in some respects fairly closely mirrors or follows events of canon (up to a certain point, anyway), readers should please keep in mind that certain characters and events from the prequel movies/novelizations of the films and even events/places/people referenced in the EU or Expanded Universe may be mentioned or alluded to in this story. If anyone has any questions about whether someone or something is AU, canon, or EU canon, please feel free to ask! **2.)** Readers should probably be aware that I am roughly estimating (guestimating might be a better word) the original publication date for most of the character study pieces in the **_You Became to Me_** series (and indeed most of my stories, especially the ones written over a long period of time), based on when I roughed out notes for them in the story notebooks I carry everywhere with me and when I can recall having worked on certain groups of characters. The year is going to be accurate, but the month might be off and the day will almost certainly be randomly chosen, since the online account I had originally posted many of these stories to no longer exists. I tend to go back and edit things that are in series whenever I get the time or a new idea causes me to have to make room for something else plot-wise, and odds are good that a story could have been edited for typos as recently as the day of its posting here, but the original version will likely be much older and fairly close to the publication date that I attach to it, if anyone's curious!

**“Anadé Boranys, Fifth Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”**

 

 **01.) Deceased:** Her parents supposedly went in to the city of New Centrif one day to go shopping and simply never returned: no skimmer, no packages, no records of purchases, no trace of them were ever found, and, after two years in which she and her older sister stayed with their maternal grandparents (their paternal grandparents having been killed in a boating accident about a year and a half previously), her parents were declared officially deceased, and she and her sister were legally deeded their parents’ estate and accounts; thus, though it was of course all entrusted to their grandmother, in their name, she was still basically only three and a half when she essentially inherited a rather goodly-sized, entirely paid for estate along with what amounted to a small fortune in stocks and another not so very small fortune in creds and jewels in the bank.

 **02.) Pack:** Her grandparents die when she’s six and barely seven (Grandmother passing first, just a few months before Grandfather) and so guardianship for her and her sister is passed on to a cousin of their father’s . . . who basically moves in to their grandparents’ old home only long enough to pack up what he wants to keep and sell the rest before moving them all out to their parents’ larger estate, on the outskirts of Keren.

 **03.) Raise:** Cousin Camryn isn’t exactly a bad man, but he’s barely twenty and he really has no idea how to raise a pair of seven- and nine-year-old girls, and she and Lahura run positively wild until the day he finally marries and his previously seemingly quite sweet-tempered girlfriend abruptly transforms into a shrill, scheming shrew who seems determined to get rid of them by either driving them off altogether or else marrying them off as soon as possible to matches good enough to justify her and her husband keeping their parents’ estate as well as everything they inherited from their grandparents.

 **04.) Fatal:** Ellindra gets mad at her sister, Lahura, one day, and Lahura ends up taking a fatal tumble down the elaborate spiral staircase that serves as the main stairwell for their manor home: Anadé is ten and a half when she loses her sister, and not quite eleven when her cousin kills himself and his murderous wife, rather than have to face a trial for Lahura’s death, leaving her behind to legally take charge of the whole of the combined family estate by herself.

 **05.) Honey:** Like her sister, as a child she had fairly light, honey-colored hair and hazel-green eyes (though her eyes were closer to being wholly green than Lahura’s), and, even though her hair darkens more as she grows older, the top layer of her thick, wavy hair remains a dark amber that glints golden in direct light, even after she’s hit her teenaged years, reminding her of her sister’s tawny honey-blonde mane and helping her to feel not quite so very all alone in the huge old house she’s been left all alone in.

 **06.) Truth:** In truth, she wants neither house nor land nor holdings nor fortunes, and could care even less about the continuation of her family line: all she wants is her sister back . . . or (barring that) at least a good reason to get out of this damned place and never have to return to it alone ever again.

 **07.) Blessing:** Amidala’s election to the throne of Naboo and the subsequent decision to reinstate the traditional position of handmaiden/chosen companion to the Queen is a blessing that she seizes with both hands, selling her family estate and moving to an apartment in Theed in anticipation of being accepted into the handmaiden program, quietly arranging things (while she waits to hear back about her application) so that, if she is killed while performing her duty as a handmaiden, her considerable assets will be divided equally between a program meant to help other orphans (like herself, but without the riches her families have left behind to call upon) afford educations that will allow them to take the same kind of road to freedom that she is taking now, by using her knowledge to enter into public service via politics, and a program meant to help honor those who fall in service to the Queen with a line of commemorative funeral portraits, to be painted by some of the most talented and creative of Naboo’s artists.

 **08.) Heart:** She would not have ever thought that her heart would be capable of loving again, but she adores her Queen with the same kind of uncomplicated, fiercely single-minded focus of affection a young child might direct towards a beloved mother or a splendid older sister, and she even finds herself loving most of her fellow handmaidens and handmaidens in training, too, as if they were all truly sisters.

 **09.) Happy:** Ellessé completes her, and she’s quite sure that she’s never been as happy in her life as she is on the day they both realize that they are in love with each other, even though the planet is occupied by the Trade Federation’s droid armies and it seems impossible that they could ever be dislodged without a war involving massive casualties.

 **10.) Problem:** She knew from the first moment that Rosé was going to be a problem because she _felt_ so very much like Ellindra did, whenever she would try to get any kind of real sense of her, as a person, and she’s also fairly good at identifying others who are going to be problems, later on, by relying on that same sense of impression; usually most of the bad seeds are either weeded out during the screening process for applicants or else during training at Varykino, though, so she doesn’t have to issue any more than a few warnings to the other handmaidens, based on her feelings, and most of her warnings end up either having been preceded by or else being seconded by similar warnings from other handmaidens who’re disquieted by a similar sense of _wrongness_ or danger, so she ever doesn’t feel as though she needs to fear being singled out for any kind of reprisal for speaking out against those who strike her as being problematic.

 **11.) Forgiving:** She’s incredibly tired of bad, selfish beings who somehow always seem to find a way to get away with mistreating and trammeling upon the rights and needs of others, and, if she had her way, the entire Trade Federation collective would simply be taken out and strung up and left to strangle slowly and painfully in a shameful public death, but then, she never has claimed to be a particularly forgiving kind of person, and, to be perfectly honest, she’s not really all that sure her opinion is all that different from the one held by most Nabooians or indeed even most of her colleagues, among the Queen’s handmaidens, so she really doesn’t see any kind of need to feel bad about her lack of forgiveness for those conscienceless jumped-up corporate criminals.

 **12.) Sorry:** The Queen obviously misses her friend, Sabé, and she pines for that handsome young Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi (who apparently also became a close friend and confidant on the perilous, somewhat circuitous journey from Naboo to Coruscant and then back to Naboo again), too, her loneliness so painfully manifest that Anadé cannot help but feel sorry for her and wish that there was something more she could do, to help ease Amidala’s isolation and suffering.

 **13.) Retire:** They’re technically supposed to be able to retire from service, if they want to and the Queen gives them leave to do so, but no one who actually makes it through the training seems to have any intention of ever doing anything other than either dying in service to the Queen or else pledging to serve someone else, like Amidala once was (before her election), if she should ever happen to retire so completely from political life that she would no longer have need of a household that includes a coterie of handmaidens, and, in any case, she and Ellessé are fairly certain that they’re going to die in service, based on the dreams they’ve had, so they’re not too worried about it (believing, as the other handmaidens do, that, so long as they make good ends and perform their duties to the absolute best of their abilities, they will have led full, rich lives of purpose and meaning, and that the Great Lady will welcome them gladly home to her bosom, when they have left their mortal lives behind).

 **14.) Natural:** She’s one of the few handmaidens who’s (eventually) gradually regressed to her natural appearance, to help maintain the illusion of sufficient variety amongst the handmaidens and so keep it from being quite so glaringly obvious that the handmaidens are chosen for their ability to be able to hide the Queen safely amongst their numbers; she’s grown so accustomed to thinking of herself primarily as a handmaiden, though, that it’s actually quite a bit jarring, to look in the mirror and see bright green eyes (with a very few random amber flecks and a thin ring of oddly bluish-brown striations around the outer rim of the irises) and thick, wildly wavy amber colored hair instead of a brunette with dark eyes who could be any number of her handmaiden sisters staring serenely back out at her.

 **15.) End:** She usually spends most of her days closeted with the Queen and her principal handmaidens, helping work out the particulars of upcoming speeches or working over figures and helping to juggle the allocation of moneys for various public works as well as for projects closer to home (regarding, for example, the weapons and training and materials provided for the handmaidens or for the Royal Guard), but she keeps in practice (in case another crisis like the Trade Federation’s invasion should ever strike again) by occasionally joining the handmaidens who are performing guard duty on either the Queen or her current decoy, and it is thus that she eventually meets her end, helping to stand watch over Dormé during a diplomatic function at the city of Selton and instinctively throwing herself between the young decoy and a sniper’s shot, managing to hold on just long enough to tell Ellessé goodbye before succumbing to a grievous wound that has badly damaged her brave and loyal generous heart.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Clarification Note:** One of the reasons why my AU **Star Wars** series _**You Became to Me**_ is so entirely not even nearly complete has to do with the fact that I really started writing at the wrong end of the prequel trilogy for an AU (in my defense, though, when I started what became my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, which is over a million words long, I thought I was doing a sort of one-shot fix-it based on an idea I got for "fixing" RotS by changing something that happens very near the end of James Luceno's EU novel _Labyrinth of Evil_ , which is set immediately prior to RotS). One of these days, I fully intend to rectify that problem by going back and starting from the beginning, with an AU rewrite of TPM, which is why I took the time to do a character study sketch for a supporting character like Anadé. She'll be showing up again, in a more prominent role, whenever I get around to that AU rewrite of TPM. Folks might want to keep that in mind when reading this, since technically this is spoilerish for an AU novel that I haven't gotten around to writing yet!


End file.
